A Week on The Llyn Peninsular #5 - Portmeirion

Hi there everyone 😀

It was Wednesday and mum and dad were heading for home this morning.

Rain was forecast ... lots of rain ... for most of the day.

After mum and dad had headed off we had a slow breakfast and decided, despite the forecast, we would head out for a drive, aiming towards Portmeirion, another place that we had really hoped to visit whilst over this way and another of the 50 things that I wanted to do before I'm 60.
The plan was that we would wend our way via Criccieth and Porthmadog and, if the weather was terrible, we would continue our drive up through the mountains to Blaenau Ffestiniog. If it wasn’t too bad we would go ahead with our visit to Portmeirion.

We had a quick stop on the esplanade at Criccieth where, whilst it was pretty grey, the rain seemed to have passed over ... We carried on to Porthmadog and decided that yes we would risk a visit to Portmeirion.

We waterproofed up and headed into the village, not knowing quite what to expect, although we had seen a programme on the TV earlier in the week where the village had been featured.

Being such a grey day the village was fairly quiet so, although we did not get the beauty and vibrancy that comes with blue skies and sunshine, it was easier to get some good photos without lots of people wandering into shot.

First stop was Number 6 cafe ...
...where we stopped for a cuppa, in Portmeirion china of course ...
... and had a good look at the map to get our bearings. The map was really useful and divides the village up into quite distinctive zones, so it’s easy to make sure that you get to see everything ...
We decided we would have a wander through the village and down to the hotel and then perhaps see if we could find somewhere for lunch. We basically just followed the map in the order it was laid out starting with the Cliffside area ...

... realising very quickly not to forget to look behind us after we’d passed anything to make sure we got the best of all views ...
As you can see ... Portmeirion is not your typical Welsh coastal village ... to say it’s quirky is a bit of an understatement ... you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a Italian lakeside village, but then I believe that perhaps was the intention ...
One of the things that is really striking is the colour ... in the paintwork of the buildings, the planting and the other sculptures and bits and pieces that you come across ...

The views across the estuary are pretty spectacular too ... I can only imagine what it would be like on a bright sunshiny day with plenty of blue sky
Inside the dome is an exhibition showing a bit about the history of the developing of the village which was well worth a look ...

We wandered past Battery Square ...
...where we found the campanile ...

... lots more colour ...

... and plenty of views of what was still to come ...

It was all a bit overwhelming, a crazy mass of colour, with so much going on ... it was hard to know where to look or where to explore next.

We carried on along the main footpath, where we could look down onto the Central Piazza where we could see the giant chess set ...
As you round the bend to pass the gift shop there are some lovely views looking down through the Central Piazza ...
... and back the way we had come ...
Whilst the colours were really vibrant there's not much we wouldn't have given for a bit of blue sky and sunshine.

We made our way down the hill through the piazza ...

... to the edge of the estuary and along to the hotel ...
... and past the boat ...

... until we reached the start of the coastal walk where we turned around and retraced our steps back past the hotel and headed back up the hill past the town hall ...


... to Caffi glas where we stopped for lunch ... and what a treat that was ...

Whilst it was a grey old day, the only rain we really saw was from the cafe whilst eating lunch and we timed our leaving just right to catch the land train ...
... which made easy work of the woodland walk, with a stop at the top for a fab photo opportunity, looking out over the whole of the village with the estuary beyond ...
It was a bumpy old ride but I managed to catch a couple of shots of the Chinese garden as we bounced past ...

It was time for us to start to make our way back so we retraced our steps, taking more photos on the way ...

We finished off our visit with a walk down to the first viewing point that we’d passed on the way in ... and we were really glad we did. The views across to the hotel were fab ...
... and the views looking back up to the village weren’t half bad either ...
We’d had another lovely day, visited another lovely place that we hadn’t seen before and I got to tick another off my list of 50 things to do before I’m 60.

It was well worth the trip and the entrance fee and I would definitely want to visit again and see it all again in the sunshine 😀

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